Wings
by Kala Ibolya
Summary: Fly away on the wings of love.rnRated because of language and 'references' that may not be appropriate.
1. Endings

Chapter one: Endings I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh.  
I do not own anything referred to in this story (unless it is a pencil.  
I apologize for lack of knowledge of Japanese customs, but my story is set in Japan because that's where the manga puts the characters. I also try to keep the characters more like the ones in the manga instead of in the show. As in, the show has more emphasis on dueling, but in the manga, it shows how Yu-Gi-Oh (that's Yami's title) is the 'king of games' (which is Yu-Gi-Oh translated, for those fans who are new to the whole thing and don't know the meaning of 'manga)  
I also apologize for lack of knowledge of Military Time and how it reads. It will be corrected ASAP.  
I should note in advance that some of the companies and products that I speak of may not be the same in Japan, but I am sure that there is something similar, so I won't let lack of facts slow me down. (if you have a suggestion about that, I would like to hear it)  
Please critique the story as harshly as you can. Good writers always listen to what the audience has to say.  
Please give ideas of where this story might lead.  
I will respond personally to reviews with an e-mail address attached.  
Thank you for being understanding.  
Please Note:  
. time passage .o view change (similar to a camera changing angle so that it sees what a different person sees)  
o. view change (similar to a camera changing angle so that it sees what a different person sees)  
words between these are written in the story or are character's dreams or memories Author's note or something like such .' end of chapter (its a Neko-Girl)  
(some explanations are in parenthesis and are by me, Ryou)  
There is no differentiation for when the character is thinking. I apologize for the effects of Text files.  
  
0655, Thursday, Binion residence, Ryou's room:  
Ryou woke up late again, and he wondered why he kept missing his alarm. He had tried going to bed at the same time, 9:00, every night, but it wasn't working so far, and he was on his third month. "Ryou!!" Yelled his foster mother, Mrs. Binion. She was a short fat old lady who agreed to foster care when her husband had said that he needed help doing things around the house, and they were both too old to help each other.  
Ryou rolled out of bed, and stretched. Suddenly he doubled over in pain. His stomach and rib cage felt like they had been pummeled and his legs were stiff as if from running hard and long the night before. However, Ryou forced himself up and caught a glimpse of his battered face in his nearby mirror. There was a bruise over his right eye and his left one was black. To top it all off, his normally white hair was blood red.  
"Oh my gosh!"  
Ryou's eyes surveyed the rest of his body, and realized that he was dressed in a black T-shirt and black jeans that he didn't even know he owned.  
"Wow… With purple eyes I'd look like that Thief-King person."  
"Ryou!" Mrs. Binion was coming up the stairs now.  
I can't let her see me like this!! He thought frantically. He yanked off the black T-shirt and the black jeans and shoved them in a black backpack that happened to be in the empty space behind his computer tower. Wearing nothing but his boxers and Millennium Ring, he scrambled to his dresser and yanked open the drawer. Three seconds and counting… He yanked on blue jeans. Two seconds and counting… He yanked on a T-shirt from San Francisco. One… Ryou shoved his head into a sweater just as Mrs. Binion yanked open the door.  
"Ryou, what's taking you so long?" Ryou froze, his face and hair hidden in his sweater.  
"I overslept?"  
"Again? Why? You go to bed at a reasonable time, you never complain about insomnia, and you live a healthy lifestyle otherwise. Ryou, unless you want to be grounded, make sure you get up on time. Now you're gonna be late for school, so you're going to have to miss breakfast. Get your stuff and go get in the car, I'll go clean up breakfast." As soon as Mrs. Binion left, Ryou pulled his head out of his sweater. He took another glance at the mirror, and gasped. The bruises and black eye were already fading.  
Ryou ran into the bathroom and splashed water through his hair, rinsing out the blood. Then he grabbed his school backpack and ran down the stairs. I guess I'm lucky that Sue (that's Mr. Binion) isn't home, he'd throw a hissy fit and I hope Febie doesn't tell him.  
Ryou scrambled to the car and wondered what the new tale about Thief-King Bakura would be- the gangs at school always had a story that had 'just happened last night' about a kid dressed in black with white hair and purple eyes who called himself 'Thief-King Bakura' and went around Domino robbing the richest places with the highest security and dumped the valuables in garbage at Domino City dump. Most of the kids thought he was the coolest thing, since he disappeared come morning and left no trace.  
Ryou thought for a second, sitting in the car alone. How come I can't seem to get rest? How come I woke up this morning in all black? My eyes even seemed purple for a second… Wait, this isn't going to help matters if I think that I am Thief-King by sleepwalking… 'Course, Yugi and his friends said I was acting weird at that castle place- I don't even remember it! I remember waking up in a room, in the middle of the night, and walking around a castle and not seeing anyone so I thought it was a dream and went back to bed. A thought occurred to him, questioning himself. Was it a dream?  
Nightmare images carefully tucked away and organized resurfaced- each one before he had heard about Thief-King doing anything he had seen in the dream.  
  
Some lady's pearls are in his hand and he's racing the guards to the exit, leaping over the police car that tried to block his path - the bank's sirens screaming behind him as he cowers in a garbage bin and gets the idea to ditch the loot in the trash - A woman screaming and a man racing after him as he leads a wild-goose chase through their house, trashing it and finally letting the man come up so he could stab him with his knife and let go, the man dying and Thief-King writing his name and all his former glories: the lady's pearls and the bank are two of them, in the blood on the wall…   
The list went on and on. But at school, Ryou shook himself out of his reverie and went to the class he had just switched into.  
I have to talk to someone… But who?  
An idea occurred to him to join a gang.  
I can't fight!  
Learn… Whispered a voice in his head. Ryou so much liked the idea that he forgot completely that the voice in his head was different.  
Then, another thought broke his euphoria. If I'm tired now, what about when I learn to fight?  
He sighed just as the bell rang and the children filed into class. Blade (that's seriously his last name) came in carrying a conversation about how Thief-King had been caught by the Fangs, a gang that was highly territorial, but he got away with a few bruises and amazingly, no broken bones. Yet again, he was gone by sunrise and left no trace.  
"But I know for a fact that he had to have been hurt, because I usually catch a flash of him, an hour before sunrise, running down the street as if he has to be somewhere. But today, he was walking with a limp, and just about the time the sun rose."  
At that point, Ryou had to yawn, closing his eyes for a second. When he opened them, he found Blade staring at him casually. He wrote a note and held it up. It read:  
  
my eyes are brown, see?  
  
Shadow looked away. But when class had been called to order, Ryou found that Shadow had sat next to him.  
Sometime during class, Ryou wasn't sure when, but he knew that it was before the fire bell rang and after the test, he found a note on his desk. It read as follows:  
  
TO RYOU (on the outside)  
Follow me today when the fire bell rings.  
shadow blade   
The fire bell rang, and Ryou got up and followed the class out the door, watching Blade until he slipped away, like a translucent green marble in grass. Then, he followed. .o Blade wasn't visibly watching, but he was sure that Ryou was keeping up when he led the way around a wall and saw Ryou step around, wary and probably afraid.  
I should probably set him at his ease, but if he's the Thief-King, he won't be completely that way.  
Blade called quietly to Ryou, and the two slipped behind some tall bushes where a ladder leaned against the wall. Blade led the way up it, and Ryou followed.  
o  
When Ryou reached the top, he realized where he was. Across the field, his class stood, bored.  
He looked around at Blade, and realized that Blade had crawled off the ladder and onto the roof, where he lay, watching the crowd.  
"Any minute now…"  
Suddenly, a fight broke out in the back of the classes. It seemed to involve quite a few of the high schoolers and some adults standing nearby. Nearly all the teachers ran to break it up, but it was firmly in hand and there were too many fighters per teacher.  
"Okay, now no one will notice that we are missing, much less care to find us. My name is Blade, but you can call me Shadow."  
"I'm Ryou Binion by the roster and Ryou Bakura to myself and friends."  
"Bakura?" Shadow said, showing some surprise.  
"Yeah, why? And since I'm asking questions, why did you bring me here?"  
"Because you resemble a friend of mine - a lot. And his family name happens to be Bakura."  
"Really?" I think I know who you're talking about, but I'm not sure enough to say anything.  
"Yeah." Shadow paused, as if struggling to find the right words. "Do you know the kid called- well, first, let me ask you this, do you have an older brother?"  
"No. I used to have a younger sister, but…" He trailed off, feeling the pang of sadness that came with remembering Amane.  
"I'm sorry, I heard about that. I have a little sister myself, and if anything happened to her, I'd have to kill someone - even if it was only myself…"  
"Who'd you hear it from?" Ryou wondered.  
"Look, Ryou, I think that Thief-King would want you to know this… You know how you and Yugi are related? Both of you have a Yami. Thief-King told me that. He also said that he's tired of being a step behind Yugi and Yami. He wants to meet you, to get to know you, so that you two can duel in shifts or merged like he saw Yugi and Yami do."  
Ryou was staring at Shadow, and was surprised. But he wasn't as surprised as he had thought he should've been.  
"That's not too surprising. I haven't been getting enough rest even though I go to bed early, I sleep the whole night through, and I still wake up after my alarm. Long after my alarm, as was the case today. You said that this morning, you saw Thief-King limp by?"  
"Yeah, he was totally beaten up." Shadow frowned. "But one thing beats me. How do you hide the bruises and broken bones?"  
"Well, this morning as I was dressing, I saw the bruises on my face fade faster than a cat can drink milk, so that's why I've never woken up with bruises, but I'm curious to know how the breaks mend so fast."  
"Hmm… Maybe, don't think me crazy, but maybe what happens is that since you didn't get the bruises and broken bones, they revert back to your normal state when you take possession of your body… You are the hikari, right?"  
"What? What is a hikari?"  
"A hikari is the host soul to a yami. Yugi is "the-nameless-pharaoh" 's hikari. You are Thief-King's hikari."  
"That's confusing."  
"Thief-King would say the same thing."  
"Are we - Thief-king and I - are we alike at all?"  
"A little bit, in little ways. But you two have far different personalities, so I hope they don't clash."  
"Hey, Shadow, look. The rest of the school are going home, and your fighters have dispersed."  
"C'mon, follow me. I know a way to get over there without being seen."  
  
1200, Thursday, in front of Domino High:  
Mrs. Binion finally pulled up, a half hour after one of the last cars pulled out of the parking lot. Shadow and his father had stayed behind, and just before pulling away, Shadow shook Ryou's hand.  
"Nice talking with you." He called, as his father drove away. Ryou looked down at the paper Shadow had left in his hand. It was addressed in Shadow's bold print to: RYOU AND BAKURA Ryou AND Bakura? What did he mean by that?  
But Ryou shoved it in his pocket and vowed to remember it later, when he was alone.  
  
1205, Thursday, Binion residence, living room:  
Ryou reached home, and decided to watch TV. He sat down on the couch, flicked on the television, and fell asleep without warning. The next thing he knew was Mrs. Binion shaking him at 7:00, Thursday evening.  
"Ryou! Wake up! It's dinner time, my husband will be home soon, and you need to dress in what he considers appropriate for dinner."  
Ryou stood up and stumbled upstairs. The over six hours of sleep had done him some good, but he was starving from no breakfast or lunch. He stumbled to his closet to get the clothing, which was slacks and a dress shirt, but when he opened the door to the closet, he found that all of the fancy clothing was ripped and torn.  
Ryou blinked at it, and then dismissed the feeling of dismay. Thief-King was angry at Mr. Binion, and he didn't understand that Ryou needed the clothing to not make Binion mad. He grabbed an outfit and went to sit on the bed, producing a needle and thread kit.  
Ryou had just repaired the dress shirt when Mrs. Binion walked in.  
"Oh!"  
Ryou looked up, dismayed. "I didn't ruin the outfit, I swear!"  
"That's very nice stitching, Ryou." She said, before continuing. "Ryou, we need to talk. I know that you've been sneaking out every night, and my husband suspects it- he's plotting to stay up tonight, wait until you're gone, then sit in here and wait to confront you when you come back. I told him that I didn't think that that was wise, but he never listens to me.  
"I hope it doesn't come to hurtful words, and so I came in to warn you, Ryou… Don't leave tonight."  
Mrs. Binion walked out.  
Ryou stared at the door.  
"Sorry about the outfit, I didn't know it meant something to you." Said the deeper voice belonging, Ryou now knew, to Thief-King.  
"No problem, it's nearly fixed already… Did you hear any of that?"  
"Any of what?"  
"RYOU! Hurry up and get dressed! My husband's in the driveway!"  
"Tell you later, lucky this is already fixed while she was talking and now I am changed and out the door of my room!" The spirit of the Millennium Ring followed him to the top of the stairwell, then faded out as he ran to the bathroom sink.  
I'm glad I learned how to change fast and definitely glad I learned how to mend fancy clothes. The embroidery helps too, and in winter I am glad for the knitting that Amane taught me before she died. Hmm, so finally, I met Thief-King. I wonder how that came about… I wonder if it was something I did, or he did, and how we can control that?  
Mr. Binion came in the door. "Where's dinner?" Ryou came down the stairs with his hair slicked down and not looking as poofy as it usually was.  
"Ah, my dear, on time as usual." Mrs. Binion responded from the kitchen where she was carrying a roasted turkey.  
"Hello, Mr. Binion." Ryou said, quietly as he sat down at the dinner table.  
Mr. Binion grunted. He sat at the head of the table as Mrs. Binion set the turkey down.  
"So how was your day, honey?" She asked.  
Ryou knew that Mrs. Binion did not like Mr. Binion very much, but she acted the part very well.  
"My day was horrible. The boss demanded that we do twice as much work as we've been doing and my head hurts from staring at those papers all day." Mr. Binion was a secondary editor at the newspaper.  
"So what is the newest release?" Mrs. Binion asked faithfully. She was grateful for the money. "Has anything interesting come up?" Ryou waited patiently for his turkey and was rewarded with a heaping slice. He tried to eat slowly but he was so famished that he had no choice but to swallow half of it in one gulp. Luckily, Mr. Binion didn't notice, and Ryou was able to slow down just a bit. "No, other than the fact that someone vowed to kill the Thief-King or die trying."  
"Really? Who?" Neither of the Binions noticed that Ryou had lost his appetite and was listening intensely, chewing a bite of raw carrot.  
"Ryou!" Ryou looked up at Mr. Binion, hiding his fright. "You're done! Go to bed!"  
Ryou got up and left the table. As soon as he was away, though, his stomach grumbled again in hunger.  
"Great." He muttered as he went upstairs and dressed for bed. He pulled up the window sash and slipped under his blankets. However, unlike other nights, he couldn't fall asleep. Then he remembered that he had forgotten to tell Thief-King not to leave tonight, so he crawled out of bed and grabbed a notepad and pencil.  
  
dear thief-king,  
I heard that someone will be waiting for you to return tonight   
Mr. Binion was pounding up the stairs. Ryou tucked the notepad under his pillow and the pencil with it as Mr. Binion satisfied his curiosity that Ryou was asleep.  
"See? What did I tell you? That boy was exhausted! And how! He went to bed and went to sleep and ate three meals a day. And he overslept and went to sleep early as well! This means that he has to be the Thief-King!"  
"Honey, boys his age need a lot of sleep. You did when you were his age."  
"I was in football, baseball and soccer all at the same time."  
The two parent like figures walked down the stairs, still talking. Ryou finished his note by the light of the hall, then taped it to his window lock, after he closed the window, as if on impulse. That done, he went to bed and lay down. Then, he remembered the note from Shadow. He climbed out of bed and searched his jeans pocket until he found the note.  
  
DEAR RYOU AND BAKURA If you ever have need to get away from your house for a few nights, don't be afraid to come to my place any hour of the night. My father hates Mr. Binion, and after he heard that you weren't related, his sympathies belonged to you. Oh, Yeah, and when I say Bakura, I mean T-K.  
  
T-k? Ryou asked himself. Oh, that must mean Thief-King. Well, I'll put it with my note so he can read it.  
Suddenly, there was a tapping at the window, and Ryou saw Shadow on the other side.  
Ryou flung the window open.  
"Hey Ryou!" Shadow whispered. "Did you see the latest newscast?"  
"No, should I have?"  
"Well, there was an article about how Mr. Binion swore that he would kill Thief-King or die trying."  
"Oh!"  
"And another about how the police are starting to pull suspects of who is the Thief-King. They might pull you in!" Shadow looked mildly scared. "And with Binion against you, you don't have a secure enough alibi. You'd get three proven counts of first-degree murder and over twenty counts of police evasion. You need to get out fast! We might have to send you to England or America or something-" Ryou's bedroom door swung open a crack, soundlessly. "We can start tonight, do you have dark clothing?"  
"Uh, yeah, actually, I do." Ryou got the black T-shirt and jeans out from behind his computer tower and dressed quickly. Shadow handed him a black cloak.  
At Ryou's questioning glance, he responded, "That got left at my house last night." Ryou nodded and put it on. "Better lock your door, the more time you can buy, the better."  
As Ryou was about to close the door, a Siamese kitten walked in. The collar said, 'I'm friendly to thieves and murderous ones' on the top and the tag underneath read 'Sanura, queen of the cats and priestess cat of Bastet'  
Ryou closed and locked the door, watching the kitten, who leapt onto the windowsill and led the way down to the ground. Ryou followed her to the windowsill, and suddenly, there was pounding on the door. Mr. Binion's voice echoed through the house. "RYOU! OPEN THE DOOR!!" The Siamese kitten meowed her answer from outside.  
"No- o- o- o!" She meowed. Shadow and Ryou looked at each other, amazed.  
"Ryou! Open it this second or I will break this door down!!"  
Ryou didn't know what to say or do.  
.o Binion hesitated. His wife was standing downstairs talking to the police. Should I wait, for backup? No. I told the camera that I would kill Thief-King and I will. Armed with an army knife, Binion tackled the door as if it was an opposing football player, and the door gave. One more go, and the door was knocked off of its hinges. By the window stood a familiar shadow, staring at the floor. It looked up at him and smiled, making his blood freeze.  
"So, Binion, it comes to this. You accused my Hikari, and he had no alibi. But this time is different. We are no longer separate, and he will not be as innocent as before."  
"I vowed to kill you, Thief-King."  
"I believe that you vowed to kill me or die trying." Bakura smirked. "But, if you wish to try, Binion, have at me."  
"Gladly!" Binion charged, swinging the poker. But Bakura easily dodged and o  
"Gladly!" Binion charged, swinging the poker. But Bakura easily dodged and struck upward with his knife from low, catching Binion's gut. When he doubled over, Bakura yanked up on his head.  
"Too bad, Binion. You shouldn't have bothered." He whispered.  
Febie Binion was standing at the bedroom door, with no sadness apparent.  
"To keep Ryou's record clean, tell the police I kidnapped him. I will say the same thing in my note."  
Using the blood, Bakura scrawled these words on the wall.  
  
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN!  
Ryou Binion is no longer living here. His father wrongfully accused him of being me because he was always tired. But that shall no longer happen, and it is in Ryou's best interest that no one tries to hunt him down. For if they do, I will have to hunt them down… And I don't leave my prey alive.  
Thief-King Bakura   
Mrs. Binion walked over to read it, and sighed. "Good-bye, then. I'd better go get worked up over my husbands death." She walked out, not noticing that Bakura was already gone.  
.' 


	2. No Diving

Chapter Two: No Diving!  
  
0800 Friday (Holiday), street:  
Ryou, Shadow, and Key (shadow's sister) were walking along a canal in the ghetto of downtown Domino. Ryou was wearing a black T-shirt under a black leather vest, a pair of black jeans, and a black backpack. On his black, braided-leather belt, he had a long bladed knife, which had a unique hilt. There were twin dragons twined, in silver with black tarnish in the crevices, and at the end, in gold, was a miniature Millennium Ring, at least in model. Shadow was wearing jeans and a white tank top under a red button T-shirt and Key, a short ten-year-old with naturally brown hair was wearing a denim skirt and a white blouse. Both of the Blades had dyed their hair blue and Key had a red ribbon in hers. The Siamese kitten was curled up on a red-and-white checkered picnic blanket in the little basket Key was carrying. Some freshly baked biscuits and cookies and a jar of apple butter were nestled underneath the blanket, letting wafts of fresh baking seep through.  
The area around the four was the downtown ghetto, where all the gangs seemed to congregate, and they had a cease-fire - or any kind of fighting - because otherwise no one would be able to get anywhere. It was Shadow's idea, of course.  
When the four reached a certain building that looked like any other building on the street except for the fact that it had been a high-tech office building in the street's good old days, they turned into the doorway of the building across the street, an old hotel.  
In the foyer, the four started talking.  
"Oh my gosh! Did you see that Fang? We almost got shot!"  
"MEOWW!"  
"Hey, where's the rest of your gang again?"  
"Where's Izzy? Wasn't he gonna meet us here?"  
"MROWWW!!"  
"What is your cat trying to communicate, Ryou?"  
"She's not my cat, Key, I just found her in my room before I left."  
"Hey Key, open this elevator door, we need to get further into this motel in case someone broke the cease-fire."  
"Sure!"  
"Cease-fire?"  
"Yeah, all the gangs decided that this is a no-warring zone, but occasionally, someone gets knifed and there's a drive-by." The elevator door opened and Shadow slipped down a rope inside the shaft.  
"We hung this rope when we took the building cause the stairwell is one-way and the elevator is broken and crashed at the bottom of the shaft. You go next, so I can close the door. It's highly tricky unless you know how."  
Ryou grabbed the rope and slid down to the bottom slowly. On his way, he passed a couple of openings: one that gave off a soft hum as if some generators were there and the other that was full of wiring. The next opening was the one where the elevator had stopped, and it was partially blocked. But there was two feet of space, and Ryou squeezed through, dropping into a well-lit den, with old arcade games lining one wall, every kind of gaming system imaginable on the facing wall, couches facing the huge TV on that wall, and a pool table, foosball table and air hockey table out in the center. The wall Ryou was standing near had quite a few folding chairs, and the other wall had two doors: one led to a kitchen, which had a huge window, marked "Feeding Trough," where the food could be handed through, and the other door was on the opposite side of the first and was marked "The Only Way Out". It was the stairwell. There was a door on one side of the 65" TV marked "The Bathroom." The door on the closer side was marked "Computer Room" in the same handwriting as all the rest.  
Ryou walked over to the 'Computer Room' and pushed open the door. He gasped when he saw that the room was full of computers, eleven, to be exact, and one was lit up.  
Ryou crossed to it, and read, "Welcome to the Tigers, Ryou." He pressed enter, and the screen changed to read, "Please go back to the main room now."  
Ryou walked back out to the main room, and found Key just climbing down from the elevator. The kitten had left the basket and was yowling at her. When Ryou entered, Sanura yowled at Key once more and then jumped effortlessly onto Ryou's shoulder and climbed onto the top of his head, where she settled comfortably on her brisket.  
"Ookay…" He said, as Shadow walked into the room from the stairwell. Key carried her baked goods into the kitchen and set them on the counter. A small boy, about ten, followed Shadow as well.  
"I'm sorry Shadow, I tried to come out but there were strangers up there that I couldn't let know that this was down here."  
"Who were the strangers?" Key asked, worriedly.  
"They were Fangs… And they seemed to not want to leave, but they couldn't open the stairway door, and they didn't see the light from our den, so they walked out like just before you three showed up, I guess. One put a bullet through the door of the stairway, and then I didn't want to move, for fear they'd put another through, closer to my head. And any closer with the first bullet, I would've had another piercing- one I didn't want!"  
"You must be Izzy." Ryou said, changing the subject. Izzy nodded.  
"And you must be Ryou. Hey, look at all this stuff we have. The older kids got it, and me'n Key arranged it like this. And I got the computer stuff and networked it all together. Shadow said you liked computers, so I made yours really fast. See, Naral's, he doesn't use it much, so it's one of the slowest we have. But your ethernet speed is 50 gigabytes per second."  
"Blah blah blah computer blah blah blah." Said a new voice, a girl's. "Hi. I'm Keyna." The blue eyed blonde sitting on the elevator smiled, jumped down, and smoothed her orange blouse. She had paired it with a green skirt and had tied a loopy green bow under the collar of her blouse.  
"Hello, Keyna. I'm Ryou."  
"Nice to meet you." She said, with an infectious smile.  
"You too." He echoed.  
Keyna walked past him and up the stairwell, and Ryou caught the smell of strawberries.  
Ryou looked around the room, and found that Key was beating her brother badly at a Star Wars racing game on the Nintendo 64. Izzy was trying hard to evade the rolling barrels of flame on a Donkey Kong game that Ryou hadn't seen around for five years. The graphics were horrible, but the game was still challenging enough to catch people's attention.  
Ryou sat down in a couch and watched Key beat her brother. At the end of the race, he plugged in a third controller and commanded first on the next one.  
"Hey, that's funny! No one can beat Key at this game!" Izzy gasped.  
"Well," Ryou responded, smirking, "it looks like I just have."  
  
2100 Friday, Ryou's suite:  
Well, lets see. I have officially met all of the Tigers: Shadow, Key, Izzy the computer genius, Keyna the flirty blonde, Naral, the official weapons master, Shanal, girl with long hair also Naral's sister, Tenshi, voice of reason, Kawaii, our little charmer, Reagon, the ladies' man, and Liz, Reagon's girlfriend, jealous of Keyna. But I think that Keyna should be jealous of Liz, because Liz has got Reagon, and Keyna doesn't have a boyfriend. Hmm, oh well. Not my problem.  
Ryou was lying in a soft bed in one of the rooms on the floor above the noisy den. It was going to be open all night.  
"Ryou." Thief-King Bakura was sitting on the edge of the bed. "Hey, Ryou, do you want to go see the Diamond of the Sun?" He smiled. "The foolish owner brought it to Domino Museum. However, it's not open to the public, but I bet I could get to it."  
Ryou sat up. Sounds like fun… "I'd have to just be an observer at first."  
"Fine by me."  
  
1000 Saturday, Tiger's Den:  
The next day, Ryou slept in until 10:00 and when he came downstairs, was unexpectedly cheered for.  
"THREE CHEERS FOR THIEF-KING!!"  
"YIPES!!" Ryou yelped in surprise.  
"Hip hip hooray! Hip hip Hooray! Hip hip Hooray!"  
Ryou was welcomed as a hero and Thief-King's face was three times larger than life on the TV. Ryou nearly hyperventilated in shock.  
Thanks for two days ago, Bakura.  
Hindsight: Ryou There was a crack in the door. I was gonna die if Mr. Binion got in here. I did the only thing I could think of. I know it was cowardly, but I've never had a mad adult tear down my door before.  
Bakura! Help me! Instantly, I was stronger, more powerful. I had a sense of purpose, not just sit there and be killed sort of thing. I knew I was important, I knew I could do something.  
I knew I was Ryou/Bakura, Thief King Bakurae. A joint of Hikari and Yami to make a more powerful being.  
A lonely thought crossed my mind, unrelated to the chaos I was feeling: Is this how Yugi/Yami feels?  
  
"Ryou?"  
Ryou shook his head hard. "What?" He asked.  
"Hey, Look!"  
"Huh?"  
"Your friends are like saying that you're dead." Key said. "Look!"  
Ryou stared at the TV screen. "Aww, you missed it!" Izzie flipped the channel. "There, this is news all the time. You'll come back up eventually-"  
"Concerning the disappearance of Ryou Bakura," the TV showed a picture of Ryou when he had first arrived at the Binions.  
"Geez, you look happy." Shadow said, sarcastically.  
"If you've seen him, call 1-800-NO-CRIME."  
"What, are you a criminal?"  
"We interviewed some of Bakura's friends from school." Screen faded to Yugi, shot live, from the sign in the upper left hand corner of the screen.  
"Well, he wasn't the closest of friends to anyone, and he was pretty mysterious about some things, but yes, he did actually talk to me, and he had a good heart."  
"Motou, what do you mean by, 'had'?"  
"Well, um, if Ryou was really kidnapped by this thief king person, then the chances of him still being alive are pretty slim." Anzu walked up beside him. "You mean nonexistent. Thief King Bakura has not been known to leave a single soul alive." Anzu smirked. "Literally."  
"So in other words, he- Ryou- should be dead."  
"And you don't care?"  
"Honestly, I do, because Ryou is my friend. However, he was going through a tough time, you know, foster home and all, and I found a few rough drafts of suicide notes-"  
"Liar." Ryou calmly remarked.  
"Bad one, too, look how he's rambling. I betcha his heart's racing and he's getting really thirsty and nervous." Key added.  
For another hour, the gang sat there and listened to Yugi, Anzu, Jou and Honda babble about Ryou's fake suicide notes.  
  
1700, Saturday, Tiger Den:  
Ryou got pretty bored of living in the Tiger Den, and he wanted to see the sun, since he only ever came out at night.  
"Hey, guys, I'm tired of cooking the same old food every night. Can someone name another food that they like?" Key one day said. "You name it, I'll cook it."  
No one felt up to the challenge until Ryou looked up from his air hockey game and said one word.  
"Pizza."  
Key looked at him like he was crazy, and all the rest of the gang were thinking about that.  
"Pizza? What's that?" Someone asked.  
"Pizza," Ryou said, enjoying the attention, "is a flat, circular piece of bread with certain toppings on it. It originated in Italy, but was quickly picked up by America, and now is, along with hot dogs 'n chips and hamburgers 'n fries, one of the most popular dishes in America."  
"You mentioned Hot Dogs, served with chips, and Hamburgers, served with fries, but what is pizza served with?" Key asked.  
"Nothing, usually. Whatever sides you would want are on top of the pizza."  
"Well, you've got me beat. I can't make a decent pizza, the crust always burns."  
"Pizza is the one dish I can make besides macaroni and cheese." Ryou grinned. "And I haven't had it in a while, so why don't I make it, and we can pig out on fattening food till the cows come home."  
"Can you teach me how not to make the crust burn?" Key asked, standing up.  
"Sure!" Ryou went into the kitchen, followed by Key.  
  
1200 Monday, apartment complex in London The tall rich boy with brown hair was roughly pushed deeper into the shadow realm. His little brother with black hair was struggling in the arms of a Controlled blonde teenage boy dressed in a puppy costume as a full figured, brown haired girl, with the same widened irises of Mind Control walked up beside them… she carried a rag soaked in chloroform… the teenage girl detective's world reeled for a moment then came crashing to a halt as a bullet whistled past her ear… Sukayna spun as she realized there was an enemy behind her… and she came face to face with her twin… She raised her gun, smirking… Sukayna Akila sat up in bed, tangled in the covers. She was soaked in sweat as her heart raced faster than the boy on the news and her blood pounded louder than a freight train in her ears.  
"Talieah..."  
It wasn't the first time she had had that dream, and it wouldn't be the last.  
Sukayna's room was bare in the moonlight, but she rolled off of the wire frame bed and went to her window over the furnace in the one room apartment. She pushed it open, and the air outside was cool and refreshing.  
Dressed in her summer pajamas; sleep shorts, a T-shirt from her elementary school and a robe, she leaned out the window to look at the view. She reached out to touch the brick wall on the other side of the decrepit alley, but her arms were about two inches too short.  
Abruptly, the girl spun, sending her straight, shoulder-length black hair flying around her head. Scanning the room for danger, Sukayna's violet eyes showed a micro-expression of fear. "I need to get out of this country and relax..." So saying, Sukayna glided noiselessly to her bed, and started pulling the sheets and blankets off of it, shoving them into a box.  
  
0630, Monday, Tiger's Den "Hey Ryou!" Key called, walking into Ryou's room of the motel, a floor above the den and below most of the electric-run generators (whoever came up with that had to have been a genius. They started with just enough electricity to get one running, which generated enough to run the rest, and now one of the rest is hooked up to the first, completing a loop and ensuring that there will always be electricity here.  
Key had dyed her hair purple, and was holding a can of black hair dye. "Let's dye your hair black so you can go out into public. And Shadow bought you some camouflage clothing, so you can be just another Tiger."  
"Camouflage clothing?" In Ryou's mind was an image of a US marine.  
"Yeah, you know, clothing like his, so you blend in more to a crowd. We should also cut your hair, just trim it, you know, so it is different."  
"We shouldn't do anything permanent to it, at least nothing that will stay overnight, because otherwise people will get suspicious."  
"The dye washes out in one shower. You can't exactly go swimming, but it's good for school."  
"Okay, I'll take the clothing and the dye, and how about instead of cutting my hair, I tie it back in a ponytail? With one of those band thingys that your brother and Naral wear."  
Key tilted her head, imagining it. "That should work. And with makeup and you hanging around the other Tigers, you could pass for someone different - especially with sunglasses!!"  
Ryou grinned. This was sounding like a lot of fun already.  
  
1200, Monday, Tiger's Den:  
After lunch that day, all of the Tigers were hanging out together and laughing when Yugi walked up. The Tigers fell silent.  
"Hey, um, Ryou?" Yugi said, looking around, then spotting Ryou, even with the disguise. "We've been worried about you, you know, and my grandfather's not too happy with our lie."  
"Sorry." Ryou didn't know what else to say, and obviously, Yugi's whole endeavor had been only half thought out. Luckily, well, at least for the sake of not being embarrassed, they were interrupted by the Fangs, who ran up and attacked the Tigers, who weren't even all there.  
The Tigers put up a flimsy excuse for a defense but had split and run off before they got hurt.  
However, Ryou and Yugi were noticed especially and the chase ensued.  
As they ran, Ryou ran around and around, getting Yugi hopelessly lost.  
"You do know where you're going, right?" Yugi gasped, having collapsed. Ryou looked around and yanked Yugi's arm and nearly dragged him a few more feet where he dropped the exhausted boy and turned, facing the gang. He had gotten his second wind and was in perfect shape.  
Suddenly, he taunted them and turned and fled, nearly flying over the assorted parked cars on the side of the road.  
The Fangs raced past, but two or three stopped to get Yugi. Suddenly, Jou and Honda pulled over in Mai's car (Mai was driving, of course) and hopped out.  
o  
"Hey, Yugi. Why're you so tired?" Honda asked. Yugi sat up and looked at them, as the Fangs stared at Jou and Honda, and then Yugi in turn, then looked at each other. They turned and fled.  
"Oh, that explains why Ryou left." Yugi said. "He must've seen you three coming."  
"You realize, Yugi, now you're one of the Fang's targets. They'll be hunting you." Honda said.  
"Why?"  
"Because you 'fraternized with the enemy' as they call it." Jou added.  
"That sucks."  
"That was Ryou?" Mai asked.  
"Yeah. I guess he dyed his hair so that he could be seen in public without an uproar. But even with the shades and bandanna, I knew it was him."  
"Oh! Ryou was that freaky dude hanging with the Tigers?"  
"Yeah. Weird, huh."  
"Well, guys, get in the car. It's twelve thirty and your grandpa's worried about where you are, Yugi."  
"Oh no! I forgot! I have another tournament to participate in today!"  
"Oh shit! I forgot about that too!" Jou said, and the three boys jumped into Mai's convertible. "To Yugi's house!"  
"Wait!" Yugi said. "Where's my puzzle?"  
.o Ryou Bakura nearly flew down the sidewalk, his blue overshirt flapping behind him as he tripped over the occasional dog walker. Behind him raced the Fangs, angry and about ready to beat him into pulp.  
"Wow, that kid has a whole gang after him… the only person I've seen that can make a whole gang mad was Ryou… too bad he was killed by Thief-King, he was a nice boy." Said a lady packing groceries into her car.  
"Kidnapped! Not Killed!!" Ryou gasped as he ran by the lady.  
"Hey, wha'd you do this time?" She called, accepting that he wasn't dead with hardly a blink of the eye.  
Ryou vaguely wondered the same thing, but he had reached the cliff, where a sign read, 'no diving'  
"Hah! We have you now! There's no escaping us, kid!" The Fangs had closed in on three sides, and Ryou backed up against the fence - which suddenly gave way! Ryou fell off the cliff and barely turned his fall into a perfect reverse dive that should've been in the Olympics. He surfaced, shaking his head, and wiped off the black dye that was running down his face.  
Sighing, Ryou pulled off the bandana and washed the rest of the dye out.  
"Hey! That kid's Ryou!" But as the Fang had said it, Ryou dived and swam away underwater like a fish.  
  
1500, Monday, street by canal:  
"Sheesh! You really know how to get on the news!" Shadow said as Key shook her finger at Ryou, who had pulled himself up out of the canal, dripping wet, with his bandana tied to his wrist and his sunglasses in his pocket.  
"Yeah. I know. But I'm famous, wha'd you expect."  
"They even interviewed the lady who had heard you say that you were kidnapped by Thief-King, not killed!" Key said.  
"Yeah, now maybe people will relax a bit when they realize who I am. Not look like they've seen a ghost."  
"Well, we better get you dry and in bed. You'll catch something for sure!" Key said. Ryou, panting lightly shook his head, laughing. But Ryou noticed that he was shaking from the adrenaline letdown, so he went along, took a hot bath, and went to sleep early.  
"What is it with this kid and having hard days?" Shadow asked Key as he walked out of Ryou's room.  
"Just his luck, I guess. But at least he's been well prepared for it."  
  
0900, Saturday, Motou residence, Yugi's room:  
Yugi was lying in bed, blissfully dreaming of a field of flowers and butterflies. His sheets were the same juvenile print as his Pjs, a star and moon theme, but his white comforter lay on the floor, along with a pile of clothing and duel monster cards, the only reminder of the tournament last night, because the trophy had been stolen before it could have been given to Yugi.  
Yugi had almost not won, because aside from the fact that Yugi hadn't found his puzzle, that last opponent, Akila Sukayna, had been tough. So tough, in fact, that Anzu was willing to lay money on the idea that Akila had lost on purpose. Especially after Anzu had found an opened letter addressed to the finalist that said, "sometimes there's a duel that should be lost, in order to win the greater cause." Signed, Tamela.  
Yugi rolled over, still asleep, and fell of his bed.  
"Oof! Ouch, that hurt." He said, rudely woken up. Wafts of Bacon-and-Egg smelling air came through his open doorway, so Yugi got up, yawned, and walked towards it. A thought about last night popped into his head as he slipped on a duel card and fell on all his stuff.  
"Ouch. Hey look, I wonder if I get my three wishes- I just saw the 'flying fish' in flight." He said to himself.  
"Yugi! Breakfast!" Soguroku called up the stairs. "Are you okay?"  
"Yeah! Be down in a minute." Yugi stood up again. "Got to stop falling!"  
Yugi crossed to the stairs and started to go down but his feet never connected to the top stair and he fell headlong with a yelp.  
Yugi looked dazedly at the spinning ceiling as his grandfather knelt down beside him.  
"Yugi!" Yugi winced at Anzu's voice as it pounded through his head, pushing away the fog of unconsciousness. "Yugi? Are you okay?" Jou was there too, but that was all Yugi could realize before he was overcome by the clouds of darkness.  
.o Anzu gasped. "We need to get him to the hospital right away! He might have a concussion!"  
"Congrats, Yugi." Jou said, faintly angry, as a card, a Duel Monster card, floated down the stairwell and landed face-down next to Yugi's unconscious body.  
"A Duel Monster card?" Soguroku asked.  
Jou and Anzu picked up the card at the same time, read it, and looked at each other.  
Honda read it over their shoulders.  
"Mind Control?"  
  
2300, Saturday, dilapidated apartments, Akila residence:  
Sukayna sat on a rented futon, watching cable on a rented TV in a rented apartment. At least the food's not rented, she thought, as she ate a bagel and drank some milk. Checking the time, she flipped to the basic news channel as Yugi's picture came up.  
"- this morning, at the Motou residence, last nights Duel Monster Tournament champion, Yugi Motou, had allegedly fallen down the stairs and gotten a slight concussion, causing him to pass out and alarming family and close friends. Yugi's condition is not serious, but he is out of action for a few days at the least. Police, however, did find reason to believe that someone broke into the Motou's house earlier that morning."  
"What?" Sukayna stared at the TV.  
On the television, a news reporter told something to the newscaster.  
"the latest development- Yugi was kidnapped from his hospital bed not two hours after he was placed there."  
"Shit."  
Sukayna flicked off the TV, got up and walked to the only thing she owned in the cheap apartment, her precious computer. She softly touched the tower, full of hardware that she would rescue before any jewelry, and flipped the master switch.  
As the computer slowly booted up, Sukayna surveyed her apartment before picking up a couple of computer magazines and putting them away on her makeshift bookcase- plywood boards and cement blocks. She got some salami out of her 'classroom' fridge and chewed on it.  
Sukayna's new housing spoke of poverty, from the cheap futon, cheap TV, to the makeshift bookcase that seemed to be the theme of her room. But even though nothing (besides the computer) cost over $30 separately, the whole room was clean and smelled fresh. The wall had been whitewashed recently, and even though it wasn't painted the white gave the room a cheerful feeling. In Sukayna's window hung a starched angel, a crocheted bag of potpourri, and a sun catcher of a butterfly that a little kid had made. A single picture adorned the wall, of a little girl cut out of a magazine. The girl was smiling, and she sat in a swing, but there was sadness in the way that Sukayna looked at the picture.  
Everything else in the apartment was gray. A gray futon, smelling of Febreeze. Gray fridge, smelling of baking soda. Gray and black clothing lying folded in some plastic crates, smelling of Dawn. Gray suitcase for carrying around her silver laptop and important papers smelling of money (literally, did you know money has a smell?). Even her computer was gray, and it was booted up.  
Sukayna tapped her Internet Browser, and a cat entered through the cat door. The cat was tough but she had shadowy silverish fur.  
"Hello, Sariyah." Sukayna picked up the cat. "Look, this is that brat Mokuba's 'diary', and I am going to see what he put down for today." An expert hacker, Sukayna was able to access Mokuba's journal in a matter of seconds.  
"Hmm, let's see, oh, look at this. Here's yesterdays, and here's today's." 'there may be no connection,' Sukayna read aloud, 'but Monday Yugi lost his 'precious' puzzle and a reward that got on the news was shown, a couple of kids in for murder three counts broke from jail, and Friday, Yugi almost lost the tournament. What, is it his 'good luck' charm? And Seto says that the other Yugi didn't come out for the tournament. Maybe the other Yugi is in this strange necklace… I gotta get my hands on it!  
'Next article of business, Yugi's disappearance today from the hospital. Who would kidnap him? I'd guess my brother, but he was busy cleaning up the media burst about our adoption… speaking of which, I wonder how that happened, Seto says it was someone named Akila…'  
Sukayna logged out, and reached for a can of tuna, which she opened with an army knife at her waist. She offered some tuna to the cat.  
"Food for thought, Sariyah, do you think that there is a connection between the disappearance of Yugi's puzzle and the Hadria Twins out of jail the same day?"  
Sariyah ignored the tuna for a minute, being interested in a fly buzzing around over the keyboard. She pounced, hitting the keys y, e, and s in that order. Then, she twirled like an acrobat and ate the tuna.  
"Hmm, I thought so too."  
Sukayna brought the downloaded version of Mokuba's journal onscreen. "Hmm, here's earlier, Yugi against Seto duel, the same again, and…" Sukayna paused as a message popped up.  
  
Original Document changed, bring up new document?  
CancelOkay  
  
Sukayna clicked Okay, and the screen flashed, one moment please before the document was onscreen, just how Mokuba had left it.  
Sariyah was sitting in Sukayna's lap, and Sukayna stopped petting her for a second. Sariyah glanced up at the screen, jumped away with fur puffed, and yowled like no tomorrow.  
"Mind Control??" Sukayna muttered, breathless. "That's Draco Hadria's signature card!!" She looked at the cat, squished into a corner. "And there's a reason he's a criminal!"  
.' 


	3. Look who else we found

Chapter Three: Look who else we found!  
  
0730 AM, Monday Morning, Domino High School Auditorium "EXCUSE ME!!" The principal at the microphone had to raise her voice over the sound of the teenagers talking. Then, a short, old lady walked up and blew her whistle into the mike. Everyone covered their ears and was silent.  
"Thank you, Sensei." The principal said, into the microphone, as the Sensei walked away. "Students, I have called this assembly today to greet the new students today." Sukayna was sitting behind the principal, her briefcase by her chair. She was braiding the hair of the girl in front of her, who looked about twelve or thirteen. A girl sat across the stage from the two siblings and glared at the back of the principal's head.  
"Psst… Kaiba's twin…" Sukayna said, talking to the other girl, who glared at Sukayna so fast, she nearly sprained her neck.  
"Don't you dare…" The girl whispered. "I am Crystal Black, from Canada!"  
"I'm from good old USA." Sukayna said, in a pacifying tone. "But I was just asking if you'd let me'n my sister go before you do."  
"Yeah, of course. but ain't your name Akila? As in, you'd be before me anyway?"  
Sukayna shrugged as Crystal was called.  
Crystal glared at the principal, who had made the mistake of looking at her directly. "J- just state your n- name, h- how old you are and your f- favorite t- TV show…"  
"They go first." Crystal jerked her head at Sukayna and the younger girl.  
Sukayna stood up, briskly, done with her sister's hair. She walked to the microphone, reminding people of a cat.  
"My name is Akila Sukayna. Call me Akila. My age is 17. I do NOT watch television shows."  
Sukayna's sister walked up as Sukayna sat down.  
"My name is Akila Tamela," She said, with an American accent, "My age is 13, and I am a sophomore. I take after my sister on the opinion of the television."  
Crystal, up until now, had been hidden from the assembly of students, and as she walked up, a mutter whispered through the room, but at Crystal's murderous glare, fell silent.  
"I am Crystal Black," She said, ignoring the tradition of saying family names first. "I refuse to be called by any name other than Crystal." She was busy glaring at people in the audience, who seemed to turn to stone. Then, she met Kaiba's eyes, and she involuntarily stiffened. A murmur went through the audience as they realized her as Kaiba's twin. As suddenly as it started, the murmur stopped, and there was a loud silence.  
The Principal tried to take advantage of the situation, but crystal glared at her harder than before, and she cowered. "I'm NOT done."  
"I strongly dislike any and every person that bears the name," Crystal's glare was roving the audience again and then it came to rest on Kaiba, tripling in intensity. Kaiba glared back as she continued. "Kaiba." No one moved, but amazement was felt everywhere. Slowly, as Crystal walked off of the platform, noise gradually filled the auditorium.  
Jou leaned over and whispered to Anzu: "Now, that's what I like in a girl!"  
"Why are you telling me?"  
  
0030 AM Tuesday Morning That night, Tamela, a blonde (that looked like she had bleached her hair) with dark brown eyes was sitting on her makeshift bed in Sukayna's apartment, writing in her journal. Sukayna was watching world news, and e-mailing people in the US like crazy off of her laptop. Sukayna sat on the couch, and her black hair, usually penned up in a clip, hung down the sides of her face like rivulets of water from a waterfall. Her face was lit up eerily from her computer screen and the scowl, Tamela knew, was from her losing money in high tech gambling procedures.  
  
The rest of this day has gone comparatively smoothly, although Yugi Motou has not been found.  
  
Tamela sighed and looked at her watch, finding it stopped.  
"Its 12:30, Tammie." Sukayna said, typing again. She was more cheerful now. "Do you want the TV off? Nothings gonna happen between now and 6:00 that I don't already know about."  
Tamela grinned at her sister, someone who knew what her pauses and sighs meant, and made it possible for her to communicate without breathing. She nodded, and the TV flicked off.  
Tamela lay down on the mattress and tried to fall asleep. Eventually, she did.  
  
0040 Tuesday Morning, abandoned warehouse Yugi woke up with a splitting headache, almost a migraine as a cat meowed off to his left. He realized he was gagged and blindfolded, and his hands were cuffed to a pipe behind him.  
Suddenly he heard footsteps, light and slow. they stopped three feet away, and Yugi tried to talk through whatever was in his mouth.  
"Hello Yugi," said a smooth, even male voice that under normal circumstances Yugi would have trusted. "I trust you enjoyed your stay here?"  
Yugi couldn't believe his ears, and he shook his head vigorously.  
"No, I won't let you see me, but here, I'll release you from your bondage, just like Malik." Yugi felt rather than saw a flash of light- and was suddenly transported to the Shadow Realm, where he fell over and passed out.  
  
Timeless Sanctuary of the Shadow Realm Yugi woke up, head still aching, and groaned to see that the past wasn't a dream. He really was in the Shadow Realm, which he remembered from some duels he had participated in.  
"Well," He said aloud, to himself, "Nothing else to do. I wonder how big this Realm is?" Yugi picked a direction and walked straight ahead.  
He walked for a long time, and had thought everything that there was to think about the Shadow Realm, he thought, and then he looked up and watched the shadows above swirl around.  
As a result, he did not see the video tape until he had tripped over it and stubbed his right pinkie toe.  
"Ouch! Hey, that's that video tape Pegasus gave me." He kept walking, and stupidly enough, started watching the swirls of shadow again.  
He tripped over a stump, stubbing all of the rest of his toes. "Ow, ow!! Curses!!! Hey, that stump looks like the one me'n Ryou dueled on that one time… heh, that's weird. There's a light in the distance." Yugi limped off towards it. A short while later, he found that he could run, so he did. When he saw what the light was, he gasped, and the cloaked figure under the tiki torch looked up. "How did that get here?" Yugi asked. The cloaked figure stood up, and his hood fell back, revealing him as Malik.  
"Beats me." He said. "All I know is that Hadria imprisoned me as one of the first, and he took my rod!"  
"Yeah, I think he may've took my puzzle, too. He broke out of jail on the day I lost it, running from a gang with Ryou."  
"I think that either Ryou or my sister, Isis, will be the next to show up," Malik said, flopping down gently. Yugi sat down as well.  
"Why?"  
"Because that Shadi character, even though he has, what, lets see," Malik started counting on his fingers. "Scales, key, and eye, now."  
"What happened to Pegasus?"  
"Didn't you hear? someone killed him. Just after that tournament that got you the soul of your grandfather back."  
"Oh, that's what happened! We saw his manservant carry him off, but no one told us what happened. And then some crazy idiots in America wrote all these fanfics saying that Pegasus hadn't died, he just went crazy. But he was crazy anyway, so what does that matter? I gotta stop saying the word crazy, or I'll drive myself crazy- gah!!"  
Malik smiled and shook his head at the sophomore's antics. "Anyway, even though Shadi has three millennium items, or two, rather, I don't think he's found the millennium eyeball. Whoever killed him took it, see, and Shadi was going to find it, but… and anyway, I keep getting distracted and talking in circles. Shadi is not one that can be caught easily, and even if Hadria has two millennium items, so does Shadi, if not three, and all luck has to be on Hadria's side if he runs into Shadi, who's now checking random people for the eye. Shadi will sense the millennium presence and check him, and guess who's luck will have run out."  
Yugi nodded. "Okay, whatever you say."  
Malik laughed.  
  
0500 Tuesday, Sukayna's apartment Sariyah came in and yowled, causing Sukayna and Tamela to sit upright with a curse. Since Tamela was closest, she grabbed the alphabet cards and spread them out on the floor.  
Sariyah attacked the 'Y' first, then the 'U' then the 'G' then the 'I' Sukayna was already logging onto her desktop and checking the news reels on the television, so Tamela grabbed her journal and her pen and wrote down Sariyah's message so far. Yugi.  
Sariyah waited for that to be done, then attacked the 'I' again, and the 'S'. Is.  
She furiously attacked the 'I' for the third time, and this time attacked the 'N'. In. 'T', 'H', and 'E' were next. The.  
She picked out and dragged away six letters, spelling 'SHADOW' on the floor. When Tamela had that written down, Sariyah dragged around the letters L, E, M, R and A, spelling… "Oh… Sukie!!"  
Sukayna looked at the word on the ground, and then at her little sister. "Lets go talk to Ryou, he'd be the next to get caught anyway, and then you and Bakura could go find Yugi. I just heard from Isis that Malik is missing as well, so he might be there. Bring him back if so."  
Tamela stood up and nodded. She walked out the door, as the cat Sariyah put the alphabet cards in a pile then jumped onto the futon, where she curled up for sleep.  
  
0530 Tuesday, in front of the Tiger's Den "You want who?" a sleepy boy asked. "I'm looking for Ryou. Hiroto, Katsuya and Anzu said he was with the Tigers, and Sukayna found the traces of e-mails coming from here."  
The boy looked scared.  
"Don't worry. Most of the stuff she used to find that out was illegal, and she built her machines herself, mostly."  
"Okay," The boy said, with a sigh. "I'll go get him."  
"Hey, what's your name?"  
"Izzy." He said, looking over his shoulder. He typed something into a hidden keypad, and the elevator doors opened. He slid down the rope and the doors closed.  
Tamela sat on the desk of the battered foyer, then flipped behind it and squeezed into a cupboard as a group of Fangs came in, in a nasty mood. They put graffiti all over the walls and began shooting at the elevator and the stairway door. Tamela was choking on the fumes from spray paint, and her ears hurt from all the pounding. Suddenly, there was answering gunfire, and the Fangs were driven away. Some other gang came inside- they wore T-shirts with wolves on them.  
"D---, look at this crap." One of them said.  
"Yo, Izzy, you okay?" One said, pounding at the door, which opened.  
"Yeah, Izzy's fine." Said Ryou, looking around.  
Tamela wriggled and then realized that the door to the cupboard was stuck.  
"Where's that girl who wanted to see me?" Ryou asked.  
"In the cupboard…" Tamela said. "Stuck."  
All the Wolves jumped, and Ryou walked around to the cupboard, which burst open, and Tamela rolled out.  
O  
Ryou looked at her, then looked at the cupboard she had just come out of.  
"Now, how did you fit in there?" Ryou asked as he helped her up.  
She brushed off her tan button shirt and her 'desert camouflage' army pants before she answered.  
"I took a class in yoga last year, so I'm very flexible."  
"How old are you?"  
"13." She sighed. "And I am a sophomore. So don't ask." She smiled. "Me and My sister have a favor to ask you," The Wolves had left, seeing a Fang to go fight. "Bakura."  
Ryou raised his eyebrows.  
"What does the favor entail?" He asked.  
"You heard about the disappearance of Yugi, right?"  
"Who hasn't?"  
"Did you hear that earlier, Malik Ishtar had been kidnapped?"  
"No, I hadn't."  
"Okay, keep that in mind, and realize, on the day Yugi lost his Puzzle, and the day before Malik was kidnapped, Five days before Yugi was kidnapped, a cunning murderer and his sister escaped from jail. I don't know how he knew about the millennium items, but perhaps he stumbled across Yugi's puzzle, dropped and lying hidden somewhere.  
"This gave him the power to steal the soul of the next person he met, which, luckily for him, happened to be another Millennium Item possessor. He took the Rod, stripped and dumped the body, and his sister made sure to get the body bruised and battered, so that it would look like Malik was beaten into unconsciousness, then stripped of all his gold and jewelry, so that Shadi wouldn't suspect that anything was wrong."  
"Okay…" Ryou said, unsure what else to say. "Listen, me and my sister need your help. We need to get into the shadow realm and rescue Yugi's soul. Actually, my sister put me in charge of that, she's going to go find Yugi's unconscious body."  
"How would I be able to help you?"  
Tamela sighed. This was one oblivious kid.  
  
Timeless Sanctuary of the Shadow Realm:  
"Yugi!" Bakura called.  
"Yugi!" Tamela said, examining the picture Sukayna had printed out.  
The two walked on for a long while, calling Yugi intermittently.  
"Hey, look, a light." Bakura said, glancing to the right.  
Tamela lifted the binoculars off of her chest and peered through them at the light.  
"It's a tiki torch, and there are two figures by it, a cloaked figure and Yugi."  
"Who's the cloaked figure?" "Possibly Malik." Tamela said, "But we can't know for sure from here."  
"Yugi!" Ryou called, breaking into a run. Tamela rolled her eyes and followed.  
"Ryou? What are you doing here?" Yugi was standing by the tiki torch, focusing his eyes on Ryou and Tamela. "And who's she?"  
"I am Akila Tamela from the United States."  
Hmm... Malik thought, slumped by the base of the tiki torch. I wonder if she has an older sister?  
"Hi, I'm Yugi. That was your sister that I dueled, I presume."  
"Huh? Oh, yeah. At the tournament, that's right. I wasn't in Japan yet."  
"So what did you come here for?" Yugi asked. Malik looked up, absence of jewelry noticeable.  
"You."  
  
1200 Tuesday, in front of a dilapidated apartment complex:  
"Sukie!" Tamela called, and a head stuck out of a window.  
"Be right down!" The head withdrew, and a few minutes later Sukayna opened the front door for Ryou and Tamela. Sukayna wore city fatigues (they're the ones with grey, black, and white splotches) under a grey T-shirt and a karate robe, tied with a karate black belt. "Success already?" Sukayna asked.  
"Yeah. I found him."  
"And he agreed?"  
"Not exactly," Tamela muttered.  
Bakura smirked and held up a card with a picture of a very angry, very frustrated looking Yugi on it. Sukayna smiled.  
"Look who else we found!" Tamela lifted a card she was holding, showing a picture of a well cloaked, surprised Malik. Sukayna cracked up.  
  
"Here's where he was, but they moved him two suns gone." The Neko-Child Moonlight lounged lazily on a large crate with a blanket on it. She pointed to where a broken pipe and useless handcuffs lay, then sat up and twitched her black tail thoughtfully. "I think I know where he went, but..." Moonlight looked up through her black hair, her ears twitching.  
"Hey," Sukayna said. "You have blue eyes!"  
"Aren't you trading info a little young?" Neko-Child Sariyah said. "You must be barely adopted!"  
"Star is my only mother! She is only eight in human years."  
"Star?" A tabby Neko-Girl looked up from where she sat, smelling the manacles. "That's an interesting name."  
"An interesting name for an interesting girl - she can hack into computers like nobody's business!" Moonlight grinned in pride. "And all with barely touching a keyboard!"  
"Really..." Sukayna said.  
.' 


End file.
